Viking Cruises
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| Private | |
| Industry | Travel and Tourism |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Switzerland |
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Key people
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Torstein Hagen, Founder and Chairman |
| Products | River cruises and Ocean cruises |
| Subsidiaries | Viking River Cruises Viking Ocean Cruises |
| Website | www |
Viking Cruises is a privately-owned company offering river and ocean cruises, aimed at more experienced travelers with an interest in geography, culture and history. It is the parent company of Viking River Cruises and Viking Ocean Cruises.
In 2015, the company began offering ocean cruises in Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Viking has a primary sales office in the United States, with secondary sales offices in the United Kingdom and Australia, and operational offices in Switzerland.
Viking Cruises was initially founded as Viking River Cruises in 1997, and expanded into the American market in 2000, establishing its US headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Over time, the company has acquired and refurbished additional ships and built new ones. As of 2017, it operates a fleet of more than 60 ships. The company employs more than 4,000 staff worldwide and markets its cruises primarily to English-speaking customers in North America, the UK and Australia.
In the mid-1990s, the company’s founder and chairman, Torstein Hagen, took a river cruise through Russia. The experience inspired him to create a river cruise company in 1997. Educated at Norwegian Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, Hagen was formerly CEO of Royal Viking Line, and also served on the boards of Holland America Line and Kloster Cruise Ltd.
The company started with the purchase of four Russian vessels in 1997. The following year, it acquired additional ships and continued to cater to European passengers. In 2000, Viking purchased Europe's KD River Cruises, which was founded in 1827, though KD retained its Rhine Line passenger ferries, scheduled services and day-excursion operations. The acquisition added more ships to Viking’s fleet, bringing its total to 26, the largest fleet in the world, and gave the company rights to prime docking locations in key European cities. Since 2000, the company has built nearly all of its own river ships, uniquely designed Longships, adding 6 to the fleet in 2012, 10 of the same in 2013, 18 in 2014, 12 in 2015, 6 in 2016 and 2 in 2017. The number of ships built in 2013 and 2014 represented a world record and was noted in the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Wikipedia